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The Mayor of Atlanta Is Still Trying to Make Winter Storm Tupac Happen
This morning, Grantland published a post arguing about who is that rapper right now — “the one,” as some would call the figurative title-belt holder. I picked J. Cole, because he’s the most interesting...
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10 Years of WikiHow’s ‘How to Survive a Freestyle Rap Battle’
“This will explain the basics of freestyle, flowing, and battling.” That was the introductory sentence to the Internet website page “How To Survive a Freestyle Battle” on July 5, 2006. The page was a...
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We Went There: The First and Last Chance to Hear Wu-Tang’s ‘Once Upon a Time...
Once Upon a Time in Shaolin — the instantly infamous one-copy-only Wu-Tang Clan album — was unveiled last night, at an actual museum, MoMA PS1 in Queens, New York. Amos Barshad and Rembert Browne were...
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‘ATL 2’ Is Coming. Where Is the Fanfare? (Here Is the Fanfare)
One week ago, Evan Ross — son of Diana, husband of Ashlee, stepfather of Bronx — made an announcement. It’s Rashad (Clifford T.I. Harris), Ant (Ross), and Brooklyn (Albert Daniels), stars of 2006’s...
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‘Rembert Explains’ Podcast: Jessica Hopper
Pitchfork’s Jessica Hopper stops by to discuss the impact of her new book, The First Collection of Criticism by a Living Female Rock Critic, on R. Kelly’s legacy, then talks about Montessori schools...
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Barack and Me
I couldn’t sleep for shit. Friday night had turned into Saturday morning, and I was staring at the ceiling in a hotel room in Washington, D.C., only blocks from the White House, recovering from my...
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Brand Messiah: D’Angelo, SXSW, and the Evolution of a Corporate Festival
The following is a sentence that would not make any sense were it said between the years 2001 and 2014: Following a sit-down dinner, D’Angelo will perform music, new and old, on the roof of a building...
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SXQ&A: Yung Lean on Atlanta, Touring, and Getting Older
This is why I wanted to interview rapper Yung Lean, born Jonatan Leandoer Håstad (c. 1996) in Stockholm, Sweden. I was born in the 90's fuck the 80's! — yung lean (@yungleann) February 4, 2015 This...
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Watching Leon Bridges Get Famous in Real Time
In January, an email with the subject line “Leon Bridges” appeared at the top of my inbox. The corresponding message, in the body of the email: “Are you up on him?” I knew the sender of the email was...
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We Went There: The Nets Fight to Not Make the Playoffs, Ruin Children’s Lives
The only thing worse than children meeting their heroes is if those children happen to look up to professional basketball players from Brooklyn and meet those heroes before playing basketball...
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Action Bronson Is a Great White Man
I think I really understood Action Bronson when he threw on Toto. It all made sense at that moment. Standing alone in a sea of fans hanging on his every word — every move, every mannerism — at...
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Songs of the Week: Library of Congress Edition
Each year, this frat house they call the Library of Congress picks 25 recordings regarded as “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant” and adds them to their selective collection. It’s a...
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Blue Magic: Welcome to Tidal, Jay Z’s ‘High-Quality’ Streaming Music Service
Earlier this month, Jay Z spent 56,000 racks1 on the acquisition of Swedish-based Aspiro, an online streaming music company. One of the brands under Aspiro’s umbrella is Tidal, a streaming service that...
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EDM Is Dead; EDM Will Live Forever: One Man’s Dance Floor Confession
I couldn’t remember the details. All I knew was that it was Swedish House Mafia’s debut show in New York and that the date was February 5, 2010. Combing through my old emails, I’d unearthed a chain...
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President Obama Is Filling the Kevin Garnett Void in Paul Pierce’s Life
Here is a video of President Obama sinking a jumper while playing some ball against a group of kids and the Washington Wizards at the White House Easter egg hunt. The only thing Obama is hunting is...
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Justin Bieber, Big Sean, Ariana Grande, and a Homie Betrayal: An Examination
It’s another week in the universe, so once again, men are unfairly crushing it, failing up — you know, doing what we do. This is not to be applauded, it’s just an unfortunate universal truth that no...
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Did YOUUUUUU Sign Up for Tidal Today Just to Get Jay Z’s Video for ‘Glory’?
Remember 2012? It was a few years ago. And it started in January, with perhaps more pomp and circumstance than any other year in the past few years of years. Seven days into the year, the stepsister of...
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Here’s Earl
“Come backstage and smoke.” Minutes before I receive this direct message from Remy Banks, he’s onstage, wrapping up a set. The 26-year-old rapper is the opening act on a major North American tour,...
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‘Fuller House’ Is Officially Coming, So Brace Yourself for These Other...
Back in the 1980s and 1990s and 2000s — before the world of reboots — there were simply things called “television shows.” These fossils were creations, based on nothing that previously existed, that...
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‘Rembert Explains’ Podcast: Talking White House Dinner Parties, Cornel West,...
Wesley Lowery of the Washington Post discusses White House Correspondents’ Association dinner parties, a possible Cavs-Hawks matchup, and Michael Eric Dyson’s manifesto on Cornel West. Listen to the...
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